From the start, it was too much Peoria Manual for Southeast High School to handle.

Specifically, it was too much Delano Jones.

Jones scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with 21 for the Rams in a 69-44 non-conference win Saturday night at Scheffler Gymnasium.

“Offensively, he’s a tough matchup. He’s an individual who can score inside and out, he can stretch the court and he brings us energy,” Manual coach Derrick Booth said. “Delano played well for us tonight. He brought very good intensity right off the bat.”

It was the largest margin Southeast has lost by in coach Lawrence Thomas’ six seasons on the job and the first time the Spartans have lost by more than 20 points.

Southeast held a 5-4 lead after D’Angelo Hughes hit a 3-pointer 1 minute 35 seconds into the game. But Manual (7-4) used a 15-0 run to go ahead 19-5 and never looked back, in large part thanks to a 10-for-12 shooting effort in the first quarter.

The Spartans (5-8) would never get to within single digits the rest of the game and trailed 27-8 at the end of the first.

Jalen Henry led Southeast with nine points and 11 rebounds.

In the game, Manual shot 50 percent (25-for-50) from the floor while the Spartans could only muster 25 percent (12 of 48) from the field.

Down 31-8 in the second quarter, freshmen Aundrae Williams and Trevyon Williams helped spark the Spartans on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 31-17. But Javon Lee, Shawaan Warr and Jordan Sample combined for six straight puts to stop the bleeding for the Rams, who were ranked fifth in The Associated Press Class 3A preseason poll.

It was a sloppy game and neither team could ever find a rhythm, with both teams combining for 46 fouls and 42 turnovers. Southeast committed 23 of those miscues.

It was obvious that Thomas was none too pleased following the game, but shouldered much of the responsibility for his team’s performance.

“We were thoroughly out-coached and we were thoroughly outplayed,” Thomas said. “(Manual) was the tougher team. It was a night-and-day difference from their energy level to our energy level — and it showed.

“The loose balls, the long rebounds, second chances — their kids were around the ball the whole night.”

The only other time the Spartans have lost by 20 in the Thomas era was a 47-27 loss at Lincoln on Jan. 26, 2013.

“It’s not the players; it’s me,” Thomas said. “I’ve got to do a way better job of doing what I’m doing. I’m doing a pretty bad job of getting these kids to play the right way.”

Page 2 of 2 - Manual’s energy was on display from the opening tip, and Booth was pleased with the effort his team gave.

It had been a mildly frustrating start to the season, with the team just two games over .500 coming into Saturday’s game.

“I think that was the biggest different from our last couple of ballgames; we brought energy from the opening quarter and I think we just carried that energy throughout the 32 minutes,” Booth said. “Those first three or four minutes of the game were huge for us.”

And they turned out to be big for Southeast as well, but in the deficit it created.